# Noteful vs OrigNotes

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: OrigNotes at none against Noteful's 1. Noteful's advantage is ratings volume (24K vs 382). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence there is nothing between them.

Both are free to download. Noteful sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. OrigNotes asks for nothing beyond the download.

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Noteful against 4.7 for OrigNotes. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Noteful has 24K ratings behind it against 382, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 87% of Noteful's written reviews are positive against 85% of OrigNotes's.

Noteful ships an update fortnightly, OrigNotes every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 8, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

## The numbers

| Metric | Noteful | OrigNotes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | **[4.8 (24K ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/noteful-notes-and-pdf-markup/id1587904334/reviews)** | [4.7 (382 ratings)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/orignotes/id6446162922/reviews) |
| Number of ratings | **24K** | 382 |
| Positive reviews | **87.0% of reviews** | 84.7% of reviews |
| In-app purchases | Yes | **No** |
| Ads | No | No |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | **Every 2 weeks** |
| Monetization | Freemium | **Free** |
| Size | 157 MB | 97 MB |
| Requires iOS | 16.4 | **15.0** |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | **iPhone, iPad, iPod** |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | [Noteful Technologies Ltd](https://appshunter.io/developer/1587904336) | [Hangzhou Future Writing Technology Co.,LTD.](https://appshunter.io/developer/1676398498) |

## What reviewers say

### Noteful

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/noteful-notes-and-pdf-markup/id1587904334)

This app revolutionizes paperless note-taking on iPad, allowing for handwritten notes, document annotation, and knowledge organization. It offers a fluid writing experience, PDF markup, powerful tagging, and audio recording synced with notes.

**Highlights:** Handwritten notes with Apple Pencil, PDF and document annotation, Organize notes with tags, Layers for annotations, Audio recording synced with notes, Import PDFs and MS Office documents

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Family Sharing, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases (1)**

| Purchase | Price | Billing |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Noteful Pro, Lifetime | $6.99 | one-time |

**What reviewers like**

- 🚀 Smooth writing experience
- 👍 Intuitive and easy to use
- 💡 Layers feature
- 👍 Affordable one-time purchase
- 🚀 Efficient and lightweight

**What reviewers complain about**

- 🐛 Occasional crashes or freezes
- 🔍 No handwriting recognition or search
- 🔍 Limited text editing options
- 🔍 Lack of advanced features like math conversion
- 🔍 Exporting PDFs loses some formatting

**Reported bugs**

- Syncing issues across devices
- Lasso tool not working properly with PDFs
- Eraser tool not functioning as expected

**Requested features**

- Handwriting recognition and search
- More text editing options (bullet lists, etc.)
- Improved PDF handling and annotations
- Custom templates and sticker support
- Expanded cloud storage options (Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.)


### OrigNotes

[App page](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/orignotes/id6446162922)

Capture, organize, and develop your thoughts with a free digital note-taking app. It offers handwritten notes, PDF annotation, mind mapping, and multimedia integration, all optimized for a natural writing experience.

**Highlights:** Handwriting & Drawing with Apple Pencil, PDF Reading & Annotation, Mind Map creation, Handwriting to Text conversion, Powerful Search, Multimedia integration (images, audio, video), Customizable workspace

**Features:** macOS Compatibility, Vision Pro support

**In-app purchases:** none


## Frequently asked questions

### Is Noteful free?

Noteful is free to download, with in-app purchases available.

### Is OrigNotes free?

OrigNotes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.

### Which has better reviews, Noteful or OrigNotes?

Noteful is rated higher. Noteful averages 4.8 out of 5 from 24K ratings, while OrigNotes averages 4.7 from 382 ratings.

### Do Noteful or OrigNotes have ads?

Neither Noteful nor OrigNotes shows ads.

### Which is updated more often, Noteful or OrigNotes?

Noteful ships an update fortnightly, and OrigNotes every 2 weeks. Most recently, Noteful was updated on November 8, 2026 and OrigNotes on November 7, 2026.

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*Compared by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/) from daily US App Store data. Review summaries are generated from verbatim App Store reviews.*